There for You
by Neon Genesis
Summary: Post-canon. "You haven't been there when I needed you for three years. Why is it any different now?" Sasuke finds he has to prove himself to the one person he never thought he would have to. Sasuke x Sakura. On hiatus, most likely discontinued.
1. Chapter 1

**There for You**

She glared at him when he positioned himself between her and an enemy, effectively disposing of the Rain ninja with ease and grace.

As she pivoted to confront another opponent, she asked, "Hey, Sasuke-kun, what do you think you're doing, exactly?"

He frowned and slashed downward with his sword. Another man fell to the ground. "Fighting." He'd thought it was rather obvious.

Sakura scowled, sending someone flying with a powerful upper-cut. "Yes, I'd actually gathered that much by myself. What I want to know is why you're fighting the people that _I _am."

He scoffed. "Does it matter?" A blur of movement caught his eye, and in an instant he was blocking a strike meant for his pastel-haired teammate.

She gritted her teeth and kicked out at a man charging her. "I _thought _I'd made it clear in the past. You do _not _need to coddle me like this. I can take care of myself, despite obviously lacking your vote of confidence. So you can go away, now. Really, run along."

Sasuke sent her a supercilious glance. "Don't flatter yourself. It's common knowledge that one should keep the medic safe."

"_The medic _is managing on her own, thank you very much, and if she ever needs help, she'll ask for it, but right now you can _leave her the hell alone_. If you'd be so kind."

He smirked in condescension and amusement as he dispatched of another opponent. "You really enjoy referring to yourself in third-person, don't you?"

"Live for it," Sakura replied glibly, oblivious to the man coming up behind her. As always, Sasuke was suddenly _there_, arresting the attack and repelling the enemy.

At his smug look, she sulked. "Shut up."

After all of the Rain ninja had either fled or been dispatched, Sakura sighed. "All right, you two. C'mere."

Obediently, Sasuke and Naruto lined up for inspection. After lingering over a singularly vicious cut to Naruto's bicep, she directed her attention to their dark-eyed teammate.

He held still while she healed his nicked forearm and a place on his abdomen that would have surely bruised heinously otherwise. Her touch was impersonal and fleeting, her eyes averted from his.

It annoyed him.

Once they were restored to proper health, they set off back to Konoha to add another successful A-ranked mission to their files. Tsunade was acting Hokage again, but there was little doubt in anyone's mind that she would step down soon. She was never the same after coming out of her coma and, quite frankly, she was getting old. (Not that anyone would ever mention anything of the sort to her face.)

As they sped through the trees, Sasuke drifted into silent contemplation. He'd killed Danzo, but turned on Madara at the last moment. He'd traveled with Naruto back to the Village Hidden in the Leaves to accept his punishment—which would have been much, much heavier, but Tsunade was weak, and the Village was in shambles, and they needed every pair of able hands they had—even a _traitor's_.

His return had played out fairly close to how he'd imagined it in his head. Sakura cried, and hugged him, and welcomed him home. _Home. _Sasuke remembered feeling a deep sense of peace settle over him at the word, and he'd put a hand at the back of Sakura's head in something close to an embrace.

From there, though, his homecoming wasn't so smooth. After that initial response, Sakura withdrew, friendly but distant, reserved. Their conversations were careful and vague, their interactions… stilted, in a way. Never quite genuine. He got the most from her when she was angry, when she was too incensed to filter her words or mask her feelings. (When she was too angry to act like _him_.)

Her playfulness, she saved for Naruto. Her openness, for Naruto. Her smiles and laughter, for the most part, belonged to Naruto.

Sasuke received cautious looks and kind-of-smiles and words that hinted at an elusive _something _that he couldn't, for the life of him, identify.

The tables had turned, and he wasn't enjoying his new role. Not one bit.

~x~

Having finished reporting to the Godaime, she asked Naruto to stay behind for a few minutes, which left Sasuke and Sakura walking out of the Hokage Tower alone.

Once outside, Sakura paused. "Well, see you, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke stared at her, frustrated. _That's it?_

She noticed his look. "What?"

He ran a hand through his hair and found words slipping unbidden from his mouth. "Why are you so different?"

She stilled. "Excuse me?"

Sasuke glared, angry that he had gotten himself into this, and then found himself unable to express what he was feeling, what he wanted. "You're different," he repeated.

Her voice was quiet and deceptively mild. "What do you want from me, Sasuke?"

The absence of the honorific discomfited him. "I want you to stop—…" _Treating me like an acquaintance. Favoring Naruto above me. Acting like you don't really give a damn about me one way or the other. _"Stop being annoying."

_When in doubt, take cheap shots._

Sakura's eyes narrowed to green slits. "How could I _possibly _be annoying? I don't pester you, I don't hover. I don't talk at you or force you to spend time with me. I'm nothing like the way I used to be."

"That's the _problem_," Sasuke snapped. _Show me that you still care. Reassure me that no matter how badly I screwed up, there's still someone that sees something good in me. Something worthy of redemption.  
_

She shook her head incredulously, pink hair swinging—_swish, swish_. "I'm seventeen. I'm not going to revert back into a twelve-year-old. And... God, Sasuke. How can I?" She looked up at him with weary resignation. "You haven't been there when I needed you for three years. Why is it any different now?"

Sasuke might have flinched, had he been someone else. He considered her words. "I'm here now." And he was, couldn't she tell that he _was_?

Her lips parted for hollow laughter. "Technically, sure. Physically, yeah. But you don't talk to me, you don't tell me anything, you never let me in. I never know what you're thinking, or feeling, or…"

She rubbed her face. "Look. I already forgave you for leaving, for not being there. But I'm not going to go out on a limb again for you. I'm tired of hoping and hurting. I trust you to look out for me in battle. I don't trust you not to break my heart."

Sakura smiled, a little bit brokenly, and walked away.

Sasuke watched her back.

* * *

I know, I know. I have no business writing _another _multi-chapter. But I just really, really wanted to write canon again, even if just post-canon. And I realize that this has all the makings of yet another "Sasuke comes back and has to win over Sakura, blah blah blah" stories, but it _will_ become different. Or, at least, I intend it to.

Let's all give a big round of applause to the _best beta ever_, **precarious mind**! The kid is a friggin' saint.

Unrelated:  
1) So I recently got a Facebook, right? (Damn _peer pressure_.) And these people who I haven't talked to in years, as well as people that I was never really friends with to begin with, send me friend requests. I'm like, dudes. I _could _consider these as attempts to build big, spectacular bridges of friendship, or I _could _think that you just want to be able to brag about having a gazillion friends. (How many of them do you actually _talk _to?) I usually go with the latter and ignore the requests. 'Cause I'm a bitch like that. =D  
2) _Twilight _or _The Mortal Instruments_? If you know of and have read both, _pick one now_. I'm curious. Pick wrong and you're dead to me. _Dead_, I say - unless you pick wrong while still leaving an epic review, in which case you will only be half-dead. Maybe missing an arm, or something. :)


	2. Chapter 2

**There for You**

_Impossible girl._

That was the phrase running on loop through Sasuke's mind. Sakura had asked him what he wanted from her. What did _she _want from _him_? Didn't she realize that he was already going to great lengths to—how had she put it?

To _be there_ for her.

As far as he was concerned, he _was _there, and she just wasn't looking hard enough. He looked out for her in battle. He talked to her more than he did to anyone else but Naruto. He didn't push her away, didn't avoid her. Why wasn't that enough?

All he wanted in return was the warmth she'd offered him during their childhood, the smiles and the attention and the concern—sans the date invitations and infantile flirtations, of course.

He didn't care what the villagers, the Council, or even his fellow shinobi thought of him. They didn't matter to him. He only cared what Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura thought. They were all he had left.

He wanted to return to the time when they were a team. He'd gotten his revenge—on Danzo, that _bastard murderer eye-thief_, the person who deserved it. Now he wanted what he'd had before vengeance. (He dismissed the thought that told him he could only have _one or the other_, and he'd gotten his one.)

He wanted Naruto's friendship and Kakashi's guidance. Upon returning home, they had both been offered to him. So he had his friend and mentor, but…

Then again, what had Sakura ever been to him, anyway? He'd never loved her. Never even thought of her as a friend, really. Their relationship had been born entirely of circumstances. If they hadn't been placed on the same team, he never would have spared her a second thought. He'd only cared about her because…

They'd been teammates. They were teammates again now, technically. But it wasn't the same. The quiddity, the essence that their relationship had had back then was gone, leaving their interactions... hollow. Whatever it was Sakura had used to offer, to give to him freely, she had revoked it.

Sasuke wanted it back.

Of course, it would be easier to strive for something more concrete, easier to attain. Did he want her friendship? Could Sakura be his friend?

That could work. Then again, she had made it clear she didn't want to get close to him anytime soon.

But he could work on that.

~x~

Strolling through the streets of Konoha the next afternoon, Sasuke kept his eyes in front of him. He didn't like looking to the sides, at the buildings. They were constructed of new wood and fresh paint, a constant reminder of destruction.

"Heyyy, bastard!"

At Naruto's exuberant voice, he smirked. _Some things never change. _As the blond raced towards him, a streak of orange, he lifted his chin in acknowledgment. "Hey."

His blue-eyed teammate skidded to a stop in front of him. Sasuke grimaced at the dust he kicked up. "So where are you off to?" Naruto asked cheerily.

He shrugged, his hair ruffling in the early-autumn breeze. "Nowhere." It was truth.

Naruto gave him a sly look, his eyes glinting with amusement. "My bad. I mean, it's not like you really have anywhere to go. Me and Sakura-chan are your only friends, after all."

Sasuke refused to rise to the bait. "Where is she?"

Naruto squinted at him. "Sakura-chan? At the hospital. You know, where she works?"

Sasuke frowned. "She's working today?"

"She works pretty much every day, usually." Naruto scratched his head and gave him a considering look. "Don't pay much attention, do you?"

There was truth to that, too. He _didn't _pay much attention to Sakura. He noticed her when she was there, and when she wasn't… he didn't give it much thought. Didn't give _her _much thought. But that, he decided, would change.

He altered his course towards the hospital. Naruto followed him. "Are you going to see her?" He frowned when he received only a noncommittal shrug. "Hey…"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow nonchalantly. "What, loser?"

He actually hadn't meant to be offensive, but Naruto scowled. "You and Sakura-chan..." He stopped, only to smile—the strangest smile, a smile that could have very easily been bitter and self-loathing. It didn't belong on his face.

"Well, I kept my promise, huh? I brought you back to her. But I still…" He shook his head. "There's no point for me, huh? There's no point." He looked at Sasuke almost accusingly.

The dark-eyed boy frowned. "What's your problem?" he demanded.

Naruto stared at him with a look of disgust. "You know what, Sasuke? Fuck you." He walked away.

Sasuke glared after him. He had no idea what _that _was all about.

~x~

"What are you doing here?"

Sasuke looked at Sakura, where she stood in the doorway of the hospital. The harsh florescent lighting inside the building lit her up from behind, granting her a halo and highlighting the brightness of her hair, the wideness of her cheekbones, the accusatory green of her eyes.

He himself was cloaked in the dimness of evening. He unhitched himself from where he had been lounging against one of the pillars supporting the overhang. "Walking you home."

She frowned. "That is _entirely _unnecessary."

"I know."

She walked toward him a few steps, one hand on her hip, the other holding in place the strap of her bag. Her clothes were designed for comfort and practicality; her stance was firm and unyielding. This Sakura, the one he had come back to, was strong and mature. He almost resented her for it. Her eyes narrowed. "So why do it?"

_I'm… being there. _He shrugged again, because he knew it infuriated her. "Nothing better to do."

"Take up stamp-collecting," she retorted, and marched away in the direction of her apartment.

Sasuke watched her go for a moment or two, smirking, then loped to catch up. He fell into step beside her, his long legs easily matching her shorter strides.

Sakura glared at him. "Seriously, Sasuke-kun. Thanks for the thought. Really. But you can go home. I mean it, go on." She paused, then smiled just a bit condescendingly. "Or do you need _me _to walk _you _home? Is that what this is really about? Because you know, you could have just said something. I wouldn't judge you."

"It's always very sad when someone thinks they're so much funnier than they actually are," he remarked brazenly.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I think I'm pretty damn hilarious, thank you. I also think you should stop treating me like a five-year-old."

"Says the girl who sticks her tongue out," Sasuke drawled.

She flushed, color spreading like a virus across the tops of her cheekbones. "Go home."

"Make me."

Sakura glared. "Seriously. This entire thing. A singularly pointless endeavor. A waste of your time." Her mouth quirked up, though not quite in humor. "That's what you've always been so concerned about, isn't it? Wasting your time?"

It was Sasuke's turn to glare. His green-eyed companion went quiet, her hair spilling over her shoulder. It occurred to him that he had never really gotten to know Sakura. In their Genin days, he'd always tuned her out. And now—

Now she was an entirely different person. Changed and grown as the result of trials and years that he had never been there to witness, never been there to share with her. In all honestly, he really didn't know that much about her. He didn't know any of her favorite things, or what she did in her spare time, or—for Chrissake, he didn't even know for sure if she had siblings, though he was fairly certain she didn't.

He'd always taken her for granted, never appreciated her. She'd just been…_ Sakura_, the girl he risked his life for and then promptly ignored. He had never taken much of an interest in her, yet she'd been one of his most important people. She still _was_.

What a strange girl.

As they neared her apartment, she spoke. "How did you know when I got off my shift?"

"I didn't."

She glanced at him, frowning. "How long were you waiting?"

Sasuke didn't believe in honesty necessarily being the best policy, but it was usually the easiest because it didn't involve creating an entirely answer, so he stuck with the truth. "A little more than two hours."

Sakura stared at him. "But…_ why_?"

He looked down at her, making it clear in his expression that he thought her a very slow, dull-witted child. "To walk you home." Obviously.

They reached her doorstep. Sasuke tilted his head, considering her. "You'll get off at the same time tomorrow?"

She sighed, sounding tired. "I know what you're trying to do. But, Sasuke-kun… investing a little bit of time in me won't make things go back to the way they were. They never will."

He regarded her coolly. "Maybe I don't want things to go back to the way they were." _Maybe I want to be your friend, this time. _

Unfortunately, Sakura couldn't hear the words he didn't say. She shook her head, turned and opened her door. "Whatever."

He grabbed her arm, forced her to look at him. Green eyes that glowed in the dark met eyes that _were _the dark. "No, not _whatever_. Don't you care at all?" he demanded. _Don't you care about me at all?_

This time, she did seem to hear that which went unspoken. She suddenly looked even more tired, and—sad. Slowly, she bent forward, touching her forehead to his shoulder. "Of course I care about you, Sasuke-kun. But you know what?"

She looked up at him, smiling ruefully but fondly. "You're not an easy person to care about. Actually, it really kind of _sucks _to care about you."

Sasuke breathed out quietly, feeling tired as well. And... heavy. _What can I do to make it easier?_

Her smile turned soft, and she reached up, giving his face the briefest of caresses. "Goodnight, Sasuke-kun."

She closed the door.

* * *

CHAPTER TWO. In your collective faces! (Not that any of you doubted there'd be a second chapter, but whatever.) Unlike in basically everything else I've written, I'm trying to make the dialogue somewhat meaningful. Ish. Like, instead of revealing everything through prose and having the spoken be pretty much: "Hey." 'Hey.' "...So." 'Yeah.' "Well, great talkin' to ya." 'You too.' Y'know?

Much gratitude to **precarious mind**.

Unrelated:  
1) Did I ever tell you guys that I owe my life to some French dude? Name was Pierre, if you can believe that. We had him as a foreign exchange student when I was two. Well, one day we went to the local lake, right? Me, him, and my pregnant mom. Me being me wanted to go look at the pretty duckies. My mom told me to get away from the edge but, me being me again, paid no heed and fell in. I tried to swallow the whole frickin' lake. So my mom jumped in, right, but she couldn't really do anything 'cause she was seven months pregnant and couldn't even bend. So, French Guy to the rescue, Pierre jumped in, got me out, and pumped the water outta me. (I swear to God I also swallowed a fish, and I think he's still in there, swimmin' around, like my stomach is his own personal fish bowl. And of course he doesn't disintegrate in the acid because he's a _magical _fishy. One day he's gonna swim up to my mouth, pop out, and grant me wishes. You wait.)

Dunno why I felt the need to share that with you.


	3. Chapter 3

**There for You**

Upon returning that night, Sasuke slipped into the Uchiha manor silently, taking care to disturb nothing and make no noise. He hadn't lived there since he was eight. It was home to memories and echoes and emptiness and silence, and although much of the time he felt like those things were what he was made of, it didn't feel like home to him.

Whenever he'd allowed himself to think of returning home, he hadn't thought of this grand estate, this elaborate memorial to the dead and the gone. He hadn't thought of anything particularly concrete, but maybe, in his mind's eye, he'd seen the flash of Naruto's smile, the green of Sakura's eyes.

_Home._

As he undressed and prepared for bed, he chanced a glance out his window. The grounds, once so meticulously tended to, had grown wild and dense, untamed and uncared for. In a vicious coup, flowers and hedges had been overthrown by weeds and overgrowth; the sprawling acres that had, once-upon-a-time, been the ideal setting for tranquil reflection and relaxation were now an uncharted territory, habitable to only the wild things.

The house, of course, was habitable only to ghosts.

Sasuke slid under the covers and steeled himself for another sleepless night.

~x~

"Sasuke! Hey! Wait up, bastard!"

It seemed Naruto had gotten over whatever he'd been angry about the day before, as the blond came rushing headfirst at Sasuke, who had been on his way back from placing an order for new kunai and shruiken.

"Sakura-chan's shift starts late today, around one or something," Naruto told him excitedly. "So I was thinking that we could all have lunch at Ichiraku! Just like old times, huh?"

"Hn," was Sasuke's only comment.

"Tsunade-baachan wants to talk to me about something, so can you find Sakura-chan and tell her that we're meeting at Ichiraku at twelve?"

The pale youth frowned, expression lofty. "I'm not your errand-runner."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "That stick up your ass gets longer every day, I swear." He took off toward the Hokage Tower. "Remember, the ramen stand at twelve! Tell Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke watched him go, mouth down-turned in exasperation. He briefly considered not giving Sakura the message merely to spite Naruto, but dismissed the notion. He had nothing better to do, and the idea of eating with them at Ichiraku again appealed to him just a bit—in spite of himself, naturally.

Upon arriving at Sakura's apartment, however, he found that she wasn't home. (The thought that she simply wouldn't answer her door for him never so much as crossed his mind.) Where would she have gone? If she wasn't home, and she wasn't working at the hospital… Sasuke really had no idea where she would be. He should have, but he didn't.

He entered the market, looking for a familiar flash of pink. No luck. Could she be at the training grounds? He wouldn't have imagined that she would train in her free time, but, then, there was a lot that he didn't know about Sakura now.

It was on his way to the training grounds that he heard her voice, however, coming from a grassy knoll a little to his left. "Nah, you're crazy. It looks like an armadillo. See? There's its cute little armadillo head, and its cute little armadillo tail…"

"_You're _crazy, woman," came a retort—Shikamaru, it sounded like. "How could you possibly think it looks like an armadillo?"

Frowning, Sasuke approached. He found Sakura and Shikamaru sprawled on the bank of the hill, looking up at the clouds. His eyebrows drew together slightly. Since when did Sakura hang out with Shikamaru? Then again, it wasn't any of his business. He didn't care.

"Sakura."

At his voice, Sakura craned her neck to see him. "Oh, hey, Sasuke-kun. What's up? Come to cloud-watch with us? Maybe you can convince this idiot that that cloud right there," she pointed, "does _so _look like an armadillo."

The cloud, in Sasuke's opinion, looked like a cloud. He rolled his eyes in response, but paused to nod a greeting to Shikamaru, who returned the gesture after a moment. "Naruto wants you to know that we're meeting at Ichiraku at twelve."

"Hey, yeah?" Sakura rolled on her side to grab Shikamaru's forearm and peer at his watch. The act of easy familiarity almost unsettled Sasuke. Almost. Upon seeing the time, she raised her eyebrows. "Oh, crap, then I gotta go." She rose to her feet. "See you, Shikamaru."

"See you," he echoed, his eyes still on the sky.

Sasuke was already walking away, his task complete. "Hey! Wait for me, you jerk!"

After the slightest pause, he slowed his pace obligingly, and Sakura hastened to catch up. Her hair was drawn back in a short, messy ponytail; she was wearing a pale yellow hoodie, a short black skirt, and light gray leggings. As they walked, she brushed the grass off of her clothes.

She missed a stray piece of grass stuck in her hair. Casually, Sasuke reached for it, his wrist accidentally skimming her jaw.

She froze, her eyes growing big. "Wha…"

He plucked the piece and held it up for her inspection. She blinked. "Oh. Thanks."

He nodded once—more an inclination of his head than anything, really. There was a generous buffer of four feet between them that neither made any effort to broach. The faintly warm sunlight of autumn on his face, Sasuke waited for her to say something. To start a conversation.

Sakura kept silent. There was a slight skip in her step, a swing to her gait; she seemed to be enjoying her morning off work. She wasn't graceful, not really—but fluid, and balanced. She moved like an at-ease fighter, not a dancer.

In a detached, clinical manner, it occurred to him that she was kind of pretty, this girl, this teammate of his. Not a beauty, or a knockout, or a vision. But pretty, he supposed indifferently. In a Sakura-way.

Naruto was waiting for them at the ramen shack. He bounded over, grinning broadly. "Sakura-chan! Bastard!"

Sakura smiled in return, mussing his hair with her hand and then dragging it down along his jaw to his chin, where it lingered for a moment. "Hey, you." Her voice was warm and soft and terribly, terribly fond.

Naruto looked down at her with joy and affection and a deep, fierce devotion, as well as… something else. No matter how long ago they'd last seen each other, the two always seemed genuinely happy to be reunited again.

Watching the exchange, it dawned on Sasuke how close they had become in his absence, how much they'd shared and been through together. Looking at Naruto's face, it was abundantly clear that the other boy thought Sakura was beautiful.

They took their seats on the well-worn stools—Naruto in the middle, Sasuke and Sakura on either side. The young Uchiha noticed shrewdly that Sakura waited until he and Naruto had sat down before placing herself on the blond's other side. Another example of how very, glaringly different she had become.

After they ordered, Naruto turned to Sakura, gaze curious. "So how do you think Sai's doing with his new team?" A member of a three-man Chuunin cell had been killed on a mission, so the boy had been assigned to fill in.

Sakura tilted her head, twirling her straw around thoughtfully in her glass. "Hmm. Well, they probably haven't gotten off to the _best _start, what with Sai being all… Sai-ish. But I'm sure things will get better. The kid can be kind of cool, if you give him a chance and disregard… certain aspects of his demeanor."

She pursed her lips. "I miss him, you know. He was a good teammate, when it all came down to it. Loyal. Dependable."

Sasuke was becoming increasingly tense and agitated.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. He directed his attention to the boy on his right. "Speaking of which, kind of, whatever happened to those three you were hanging with for a while? Juugo and them."

Sasuke had noticed that Naruto and Sakura always pointedly avoided addressing Karin, Suigetsu, and Juugo as his team. Because he was tired and cranky, and because it had sounded like Sakura's last comment about Sai being a loyal, dependable teammate had been an accusation towards _him_, he said archly, "My team is in Sound."

Sakura raised one eyebrow, her expression stiff and closed. "Is that so."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "You mean they _were _your team. Your temporary team. While you were gone."

Sasuke didn't answer. Instead, far from hungry and feeling the need to be alone, he stood. "I'm leaving." He strode away, paying no heed to Naruto's indignant shout of protest.

He'd made it a good distance away when he heard Sakura approaching him—he might not know _her _that well anymore, but he knew her footsteps. She had probably come to apologize, to ask him to come back.

"Why do you have to ruin _everything_?"

Sasuke stopped, turned. There stood Sakura, glaring, her fists clenched. "Why can't you _ever _just be happy? You're here. You're home. Why isn't it enough, Sasuke? Why isn't anything we do ever _enough_?"

He shot her a contemptuous glance. She didn't understand. She never had. "Go away, Sakura."

She shook her head, wings of hair falling free from her ponytail, haphazardly framing her face—a portrait of anger. "_Make _me," she mocked. Her rage lit her up from the inside, made her glow—made her more open and responsive to him than she was when she was calm. Had he not been in such a foul mood, he would have been appreciative of it.

Glowering, Sasuke turned back around, made to keep walking, to ignore her. He didn't have the patience to deal with her histrionics at the moment.

"You know… before the summit of the Kages... Shikamaru came to me, on behalf of our peers. _Your _peers. Do you know what he wanted? What they all wanted?"

"Leave me alone, Sakura," he seethed. He didn't need to hear this. Didn't want to hear this.

"They wanted my permission to _kill _you." Her voice became quiet, shaky. "What was I supposed to say, Sasuke? _What was I supposed to say?_"

Sasuke stood, facing away from her, eyes narrowed, jaw clenched, body tense and tight. Why was she telling him this? What did she _want _from him? This strange, annoying girl that he didn't know anymore.

"Look at me, Sasuke-kun. _Look _at me."

But he wouldn't—couldn't. "_Leave_," he managed, throat blocked and constricted. _Just leave me alone alone alone._

_What has being alone ever solved for you? _That was the voice in the back of his mind, and it sounded like Kakashi. Sasuke disregarded it.

He heard Sakura's outraged exhalation of breath; heard her whirl and storm away, back to the ramen stand, back to Naruto. Away from him.

Sasuke trudged back to the manor, alone, and told himself he was grateful.

_Aren't you sick of being alone?_

* * *

Because nothing can ever be easy for our dear Sasuke. :D For those who wish to know, Sasuke and Sakura are not going to get together anytime soon. For a long time, their relationship will go as such... one step forward, a hundred back. Kinda like the spastic polka. (And those of you who want to know what Naruto's deal is? ...Read the latest chapters. Or just stay tuned.) Also, don't get used to me updating this early. I just wanted to post this before I left for my dad's.

And, yes, I _am _trying to get Sai out of the picture. Never really liked the kid. He might make an actual appearance later on... but I make no promises. Speaking of which, kind of, Team Hebi (or Hawk, or whatever) will definitely make appearances later on. Actually, though, I'm going to shamelessly steal **Zadien**'s term and refer to them henceforth as the Team Seven Wannabes. Heh.

Love and gratitude and pimpage to **precarious mind**. How I ended up with a beta this awesome, I shall never know.

Unrelated:  
**1)** I am _that person_. You know? The one that people talk to. And tell their problems too. I was standing in line at the bookstore, right? And this guy randomly starts complaining to me about how his wife ran away to New York where she was arrested for harassing these two guys that own some deli. (I nodded and made sympathetic noises while pretending to care.) And that was just the latest incident in a long series of situations like it. Why do people think I care? Why do people even talk to me? I'm not a good person to talk to. I don't relate well to people, and I'm not very interesting or funny or charming or _anything_. Ugh.  
**2)** My family is very strange, indeed. Terrorism is the topic of choice at the dinner table. When I pass the salad I might as well ask "So how 'bout that Osama bin Laden? He still chillin' in a cave or what?" It's not quite as weird as it sounds, though, 'cause my mom and stepdad deal with terrorism in their work. (No, they are not terrorists.) But still...  
**3)** I GOT BOOTED OUT OF MY ECONOMICS CLASS. I AM SO ANGRY. -angryface- Stupid _Mandarin I_ that can't be rescheduled. Stupid _Intro to Psychology_. Hah. USE YOUR PSYCHO-BABBLE TO ANALYZE MY WRATH! Grrr.

I write too many long, stupid unrelated notes. Woe. I should just stop writing them...


	4. Chapter 4

**There for You**

"So I heard you and Sakura got into a fight."

Sasuke schooled his face into blankness—he'd become frighteningly adept at it over the years. "Kakashi," he said levelly, by way of greeting and possibly acknowledgement of the older man's opening comment.

His former mentor came to sit beside him on the terrace. It had been two days since the lunch at Ichiraku; Sasuke hadn't talked to or seen Sakura since, and he didn't particularly care to. He was still unsettled and angered by her comments and behavior and greengreengreen eyes—so accusing, so relentless.

"It seems," Kakashi remarked thoughtfully, "from what Sakura told Naruto and what Naruto told me, that you're both at fault."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "She's impossible to deal with." His tone came out sharper and more forceful than he'd intended; he hadn't wanted Kakashi to catch onto how bothered he was about it. Because he _shouldn't _be that troubled by it. It was just... _Sakura_.

Just Sakura.

"Sakura has never had the best control over her anger," the masked man acknowledged. "But we all already knew that. And you should know better than to just walk away and shut everyone out when you don't like what's being said or what's going on. It's terribly immature, like a child clamping his hands over his ears and trying to block out and deny whatever it is he doesn't want to hear."

Sasuke scowled, pushing his thick bangs out of his eyes. "Don't lecture me." _Or compare me to a child._

"Don't think of it as a lecture, think of it as friendly advice," Kakashi responded cheerfully. "And my advice is to make up with her, because she's too stubborn to approach you first."

"What makes you think I _want _to make up with her?" He was really just being difficult. He did want to make up with her; he cared about Sakura, even though she'd become different and unfamiliar and admittedly antagonistic towards him. But his pride wouldn't permit him to go crawling back to her. She would come to him, eventually. She always had. She always would.

_What makes you so sure? _This time it was Naruto's voice that he heard in his head. _Every assumption you've made about her so far has been wrong. _

"None of that now, Sasuke. No one's going to believe you for a minute. Just apologize and get on with it. You two seemed to be getting along pretty well up until that point. It would be a shame to let that go to waste."

"I'm not going to apologize," Sasuke said stiffly. He had nothing to apologize for. He wasn't sorry that he'd walked away, that he had refused to listen to or look at her. It was how he had always dealt with things; it had gotten him this far.

Naruto again, scoffing. _Doesn't seem to be getting you very far now, huh, bastard? _

Sasuke was getting very aggravated.

Kakashi sighed and stood to leave, and for the first time that Sasuke had seen (or at least noticed), he looked... _old_. "Sasuke," he said, losing his characteristic nonchalance and maybe even becoming serious, "you've already burned your bridge with her once. I don't know how many more times she's going to be willing to rebuild it."

He paused. "Think about that, will you?"

The dark-eyed boy shrugged dismissively, and the older man sighed one more time before disappearing from sight.

Sasuke remained on the terrace for a long time after that.

~x~

He was walking through the streets the next day when someone called out to him. "Hey! Sasuke-kun!"

His insides did a funny jolt, because the voice was young and female and added the honorific to his name and—Sakura? Could she—?

But no. No, it was that girl with the blond hair, that Yamanaka girl. Wearing a yellow apron over her attire, she trotted towards him from the flower shop he recognized as being owned and run by her family.

"Sasuke-kun," she said, blue eyes slanting and serious, "why did you piss Forehead Girl off so much and why haven't you done anything about it? She's been in the most horrible mood. She's insufferable. I demand you fix it."

Sasuke shot her a scornful glance and made to keep walking, but she quickly moved to obstruct his way. He glared at her. "Move." It seemed she hadn't become any less irritating during his absence. He wouldn't have expected her to had he spared her as much as a single thought while he was gone.

She disregarded his demand. "Why don't you buy her some flowers? She loves tiger lilies. I could—"

He brushed past her, his hands shoved irritably in his pockets, and ignored the outraged shouts she directed at his retreating back. "_Hey! _Don't walk away from me while I'm talking to you! Sasuke-kun! You _asshole_! Ugh! I don't see how she puts up with you!"

Sasuke figured that the feeling was mutual.

~x~

A week passed with no contact between Sasuke and Sakura. Despite himself, he almost… missed her. No, that wasn't right. He just…

He found himself thinking about her a lot. About her forehead, touching his shoulder, as she spoke to him quietly, honestly. About how she looked with a piece of grass stuck in her hair. About her voice, clear and lilting, saying his name—_Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun_—with the familiarity and foreignness and peculiar intimacy of one who had returned to her homeland after many years abroad.

So he didn't miss her, not exactly. But he felt the absence of her—her presence, her voice, her touch—not as a palpable thing, but with a feeling of displacement, a feeling of not-quite-right. Not a missing puzzle piece, but the puzzle as a whole just not fitting together correctly.

His anger had cooled. He didn't want to block her out, or prove her wrong, or lash out at her.

He just wanted to see her.

So he went to her, stopped at the hospital in the middle of the day and trekked to her office, knocking on the door. She opened it, smiling absentmindedly, her eyes far away, a query posed to be made on her lips—

And then she finally looked up and realized it was him. The smile _died_, dropping from her face like a piece of china falling to the floor and shattering into a million jagged, lovely shards. She slammed the door shut.

Sasuke's eyebrows drew together in frustration. He rapped on the door once, sharply. "_Sakura._"

After a moment, it opened again, and he almost blinked in surprise. That had been… easier than he'd expected.

Sakura took one step into the hallway. She smiled at him disarmingly.

Then she kicked him in the shin.

A curse slipped from his lips, and she smiled once more, this time genuinely but with glittering hostility, and retreated back inside her office, closing the door behind her firmly.

Sasuke stalked away. He didn't want to see her anymore.

~x~

But a few more days went by and again, his ire slipped away. He recalled his confusion and aggravation over how she wasn't the same person anymore, over how he wasn't able to predict her or understand her or—or _know _her.

This was getting ridiculous.

That was how he found himself standing at the counter of the Yamanaka flower-shop, his posture defensive, his expression almost sullen. "Tiger lilies, you said?" he asked gruffly.

The Yamanaka girl grinned.

So much for that damn pride of his.

~x~

Sasuke waited until he was confident that Sakura wouldn't be in her office before he entered and left the lilies on her desk—a gorgeous bouquet, twelve blooms in all, wrapped in pretty yellow paper and secured by a silky green ribbon tied in a bow.

It was less embarrassing than actually handing them to her, though he was still extremely uncomfortable with it—with how vulnerable the gesture made him. But he couldn't think of anything else to do, and neither could he imagine being at odds with Sakura forever.

And, despite his prior conviction, she didn't seem to be coming to him anytime soon.

There was a small slip of paper attached to the bouquet, meant for a short message from the giver to the receiver. He had no idea what to write. That he was sorry? But he wasn't, not really. Whatever had happened between them, it had been her fault just as much as, if not more than, his.

But he couldn't just leave it blank. She had to know… But what did she have to know? _Sasuke_ didn't even know. All he knew was that there was something he needed to communicate, something he needed to get across to her. He had to show her…

That he could—would—be there for her. If she'd let him.

The slip of paper was best meant for pretty words, or elaborate proclamations, or poetry. He couldn't think of and certainly didn't care to write any of those things.

When he slipped from her office, the flowers left behind, the note written on the paper read:

_For you._  
—_Sasuke_

~x~

He loitered outside the hospital later that evening, shifting his weight from foot to foot and feeling something rather close to anxiety. Would the flowers be enough? To get her to _talk _to him. Or at least make her refrain from kicking his other shin. He had a bruise. (Not that he would ever admit it to anyone, most especially her.)

Sakura stopped short when she exited the hospital after her shift, the flowers cradled in her arms, and found him waiting for her—well, he reasoned, she found him waiting outside the hospital, and he didn't necessarily _have _to be waiting for her, but why else would he be there, if not for her?

It was possible that he had a tendency to over-analyze things.

She bit her lip, eyes darting away from him, and gripped the bouquet awkwardly. With apparent unease and deliberation, she approached him slowly, coming to a halt at least six feet away.

But it was something.

She opened her mouth, hesitated, and seemed to rethink her words. She tried again. "… Thank you. For the flowers." Sasuke could see her fighting it, but a smile crept onto her lips, unbidden and reluctant and almost shy.

It might have been beautiful.

Sakura continued, looking away from him. "I… ummm. Naruto and I… were being callous. At Ichiraku. I was maybe… with what I said about Sai… trying to—to _hurt _you for—well. At any rate, I overreacted." She struggled with her words, each one appearing to be a conscious effort, halting and disjointed and fragmented.

But earnest. So earnest.

"I didn't really have any right to go on at you the way I did. I have kind of a, um," she looked sheepish, "a bad temper."

Sasuke resisted the urge to scoff. _No shit._

"And I guess… I guess I've just gotten used to always having the moral high-ground, and I didn't think that maybe you could be justified in walking away." She stopped, frowned, and looked at him then. "But you can't just walk away when you don't like what's being said. You can't just shut people out when you're angry."

He considered her. "Isn't that what you've been doing to me?"

She gave a start, flushed. "I—that's diff—…!" She bit her lip again, studying her feet with great attention. "… Except that maybe it's not. Different. Entirely." She laughed a little, as if to release some tension. "I guess I walked right into that one, huh?"

Sasuke smirked, but with a certain… gentleness. "Hn."

"So… well. I mean…" She sighed, and weariness crept into her eyes, into her voice, along with a strange kind of pain. An ache. "If you… think of Juugo, Suigetsu, and Karin… as your teammates… then Naruto and I can't really tell you otherwise. We can't control you, and we shouldn't try. And so I…" she shrugged helplessly, looked him in the eyes, "I'm sorry."

He was silent for a longlonglong moment. Then he spoke, his voice quiet and considering and almost-unguarded. "Yeah." It was an acknowledgement of her apology, but also one of his own. He had hurt her. He'd meant to at the time, because she had hurt _him_, but—he had hurt her. Hurt Sakura. He did think of Juugo and the others as his team, in a way. But Sakura and Naruto were also his teammates, and they were still… so much _more _than that. They were his most important people.

He had no idea how to make her understand that, so he just broached the distance between them carefully, slowly, and raised his hand to poke her in the forehead with his middle and index fingers. He smirked at her dumbfounded expression. "Let's go."

Sakura blinked a few times, as if trying to gather her thoughts. "I…" she scowled. "I already told you. There's no point in you walking me home."

He gave her a long-suffering look and started walking, beckoning with his hand for her to hurry up and fall into step beside him.

She did after a moment, grumbling about how ridiculous and stupid it all was, and how she was not _weak _or a _child _and _where _did he get off being so damn _bossy_, anyway, stupid prick.

But it was a start.

* * *

WORST. DAY. _EVER._


	5. Chapter 5

**There for You**

A week passed, during which Sakura, slowly and not altogether surely, grew more receptive to Sasuke's attempts at growing closer. She was still guarded around him, but he was always guarded, so it was really only fair. They didn't talk much, what with Sasuke being his reticent self and Sakura putting up the defenses she seemed to save only for him, but they were both making an effort.

Sasuke had thought severing a bond was hard, but he found that forming one was even harder—at least, forming a bond with Sakura, this Sakura, with her strength and walls and shamelessly green eyes. The bond they were developing was tenuous and frangible at best; it was hard for them to substantiate it simply for them being so very, very careful around each other.

He thought that maybe, once a bond you had with someone had already gone wrong—and theirs had, it _had_, the proof was in his eyes, her face, a memory of a years-ago clear night and screams and tears and his own almostalmost-empty words of gratitude—he thought that, then, it was that much harder to form a new bond with someone. That once you already had bad history between you, it was that much more difficult to move on and start anew.

That maybe, if they'd been anyone other than who they were and all that that meant, it would have been easier for them.

He thought all of that, but… he was trying, and she was trying, and that was what mattered.

Considering all they'd been through, the years and conflicts and pain, more couldn't be asked for.

One Thursday evening Sakura walked out of the hospital looking unhappy and lost in thought. Her eyes flicked to Sasuke briefly, and she hummed a little in greeting before her gaze was once again directed at the ground a few feet in front of her.

He knew that she wasn't feeling like herself because not once did she protest his escort, merely started walking towards her apartment as he kept pace beside her, his hands stuffed inside his pockets not just out of habit but to protect them from the chilly breeze. At great length and with considerable reluctance, he asked quietly, "What's wrong?"

She gave a small start, as if surprised to hear him speak (which, in all honesty, was a reasonable reaction). She shrugged listlessly and didn't meet his eyes. "Nothing, really. I mean, it's just… Tsunade-shishou… it seems like every day she gets more… _weary_. I don't know how much longer she's going to be able to hold her position, and I'm not the only one who's noticed. The Council is nagging her to select and prepare a successor. She hasn't said as much, but I know she's grooming Naruto for the job.

"But… the Council is strongly disinclined to accept Naruto as Hokage, as are the majority of the clan heads. They say he's too young, impulsive, and inexperienced. Even after everything he's done for them, for all of us, they don't believe in him. They want a stuffy, mindless puppet that they can control. Shishou is pushing for him, and he has a lot of support from among the villagers and within the ranks, but… I don't know if it'll be enough."

She shrugged again, smiled half-heartedly. "It's just frustrating, I guess, and disheartening. I don't know. I worry too much." She glared up at the gray sky. "The crappy weather doesn't really inspire happy, positive thoughts in me."

On cue, the skies opened up, a steady rain falling to the earth. Sakura glowered. "Yeah, that figures. I mean, really. Way to fail."

They hurried to her apartment in silence, the rain coming down harder as they went. When they arrived, they took shelter from the deluge under the overhang of the building. Running a hand through his wet hair, Sasuke frowned, watching the water slip in sheets off the roof. He wasn't looking forward to trekking back to the manor. Perhaps he would use a teleportation jutsu…

Sakura watched him, biting her lip. She shifted her feet awkwardly, crossed and uncrossed her arms. Finally and with hesitance, she chanced, "… Hey, Sasuke-kun?"

His eyes slid to her to indicate his attention.

"I, um. I mean…" she looked away. "It's, you know, cold and dark and raining—I mean, obviously. I just…" she shook her head and offered, "My sofa has a pretty decent pull-out."

In an uncharacteristic startle reflex, Sasuke blinked once. He hadn't even considered staying the night at Sakura's. The notion didn't sit well at all with his pride or natural inclination towards solitude and privacy. But just that she had even offered… it seemed like a step towards the friendship he wanted from her.

Would it erase that progress if he declined, as was his ingrained response?

He was internally debating the pros and cons of the matter when she laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. "Okay, so obviously you don't want to. Ah well. Can't say I didn't offer."

He looked at her and realized that it probably wasn't surprising that she'd taken his silence as a negative response. In all honesty, he wasn't sure what he would have chosen had she given him the chance. He was almost beginning to enjoy spending time with her, but he couldn't imagine himself staying the night in her apartment. Also, the situation would have made them both too vulnerable. If anything went wrong, he doubted that their fragile, still-forming relationship could survive it.

"Anyway," she went on determinedly, "I'm tired, so I'm going to go to bed and get my beauty sleep. If you say I need it," she imparted serenely, "I will punch you in the face."

Sasuke smirked, grateful for this return to normalcy. "I'd like to see you try."

"In due time. Goodnight, Sasuke-kun."

He nodded, and just when she was about to turn around— "Sakura?"

Her eyes once again on him, he hesitated. "Thank you." _For trying._

She smiled, and he wasn't sure what kind of smile it was, but it wasn't angry or hostile, and it was only a little bit sad, so he figured it was good enough. "You're welcome."

For some reason, it seemed to him that that one simple, common phrase was long in coming.

~x~

"You are _kidding _me!" Naruto shouted, his fists clenched and trembling. "What the hell makes you think you can take him? And why the hell _now_?"

The ambassador from Kumogakure narrowed his eyes in distaste. "Uchiha Sasuke has been found guilty of the crimes of attacking the Raikage's brother and taking him by force to be killed after having his tailed-beast extracted from him. The Raikage has been gracious enough to delay making this demand until now out of respect for the Hokage's recovering health."

Tsunade, whose office they were all in, pressed her lips together tightly. "How very kind of him. And if I refuse his demands?"

The ambassador smiled thinly and without warmth. "My Lord hopes it will not come to that, but he is prepared to force the matter, and all that that entails."

"_War_, you mean," Sakura snarled. "At least be man enough to say it, you spineless bureaucrat." She and Sasuke were present as well, the latter standing stiffly, his face a paper-blank mask. Kakashi leaned against the far wall, silent and scary-calm.

"Sakura," Tsunade warned. "Remember yourself."

"This is bullshit!" Naruto exclaimed. "Killer Bee is _fine_. He escaped!"

"That is _beside _the point—"

Sakura cut the ambassador off. "Sasuke has already submitted to Konoha and accepted punishment for his defection and crimes. The Raikage has no claim over him." She stood hipshot, arms crossed, glaring something fierce.

"For his crimes against _Konoha_, maybe," the ambassador responded testily, "but not against Kumo. It does not matter that Lord Killer Bee escaped; the Uchiha's _intentions _were still there."

Naruto bared his teeth in a feral manner. "Yeah, well, _my _intentions are to—"

"_Naruto!_" Tsunade yelled. "And you, Sakura. If you cannot control yourselves, I will throw you both out." The addressed pair scowled.

Sasuke was shell-shocked. When life _finally _seemed to be going the right way… his past snuck up on him again. _This is what I get for becoming complacent. _Perhaps he simply wasn't meant to be happy.

The ambassador tilted his chin haughtily. "The Raikage demands that Uchiha Sasuke be taken into the custody of my guards and transported back to Kumo for sentencing."

"Which would be?" Kakashi spoke for the first time.

"It is not my place to say. Perhaps service. Perhaps death."

Naruto hissed sharply, and Sakura moved to stand protectively in front of Sasuke. "I won't let you _touch _him," she swore lowly. The harsh light in her eyes confirmed her words. The girl meant what she said, meant it with every fiber of her being, and she was willing to fight for it.

Sasuke stared at the back of her head. He was almost… touched by her devotion. He didn't understand it, couldn't comprehend where it came from (though maybe, he thought, it was the same sort of impulse that made him take her safety upon himself in battle). But it… it made him feel just a little bit better about the whole thing.

Still, he couldn't let her fight his battles for him, couldn't let her sacrifice herself for him. He reached out to touch her arm. "Sakura."

She flinched away from him, shoulders curved inward defensively, and refused to meet his eyes. He blinked, and reasoned that perhaps she was just uncomfortable with her display of defensiveness over him. But still, that slight caused him to feel the smallest of stabs somewhere around his chest.

Tsunade regarded the entire scene over the steeple made by her fingers. She looked at the ambassador and said at length, "I acknowledge that the Raikage is at least partially justified in his demand, but I will not condone any harm to befall Sasuke for it. He has renewed his alliance to Konoha and is therefore under my protection."

She raised her voice when the ambassador made to interrupt. "You will send a messenger-bird to the Raikage informing him that I, as Hokage of Konohagakure, will send Uchiha Sasuke to Kumo under direction to serve the Raikage for one month. Sasuke is a skilled, powerful ninja. For that period of time, your Lord may make use of him without any monetary compensation to him or to Konoha. In that way Sasuke will atone for his crimes. Those are my terms, and I will permit little negotiation."

The ambassador bristled. "I—"

"_You _are not the leader of your Village. You will send the message to the Raikage, as I instructed." She leveled a penetrating look at him. "You're dismissed."

His teeth audibly grating, he bowed stiffly and stormed out of the room.

"I'm going with him."

Everyone turned at Sakura's voice, which was firm and outlined by conviction.

Naruto furrowed his brow in confusion. "You're going with that horrible old fussbag of an ambassador?"

Sakura put a hand on her hip, her mouth set in exasperation. "_No_. I'm going with Sasuke-kun to Kumo."

The blue-eyed boy brightened considerably. "Oh, yeah! I am too!" He turned. "Right, Tsunade-baachan?"

The Godaime propped her chin on a fist, looking very tired. "You're already leaving on a long mission tomorrow morning, Naruto."

Naruto stared at her. "WHAT? But can't you just make someone else go? Baa-chan!"

She frowned reprovingly at him. "Not this late I can't. And you need more high-ranking missions on your file. It will help your case with the Council."

He scowled at her, looking very petulant. "But Sakura-chan gets to go with the bastard…! It'll be like a party, and I'll be _missing _it! How is that fair?"

"First of all, it will be nothing like a party. Second of all, I never said Sakura could go."

Sakura's mouth dropped open. "But Tsunade-shishou!"

"Why do you think you _should _get to go?"

The green-eyed girl stood very straight and enunciated clearly, as if reciting an answer from the textbook for a teacher. "Because you were already talking about sending an ambassador to Kumo to work out that one treaty—about the border? So why can't it be me? You've trained me well enough in the matter of diplomacy and negotiations. And anyway, I'm not letting Sasuke-kun go alone. God only knows what shenanigans he'll get into."

Sasuke made a face.

Tsunade regarded her with bemusement, but one corner of her mouth threatened to quirk upwards. "I would have to chain you kicking and screaming to my desk to keep you from going, wouldn't I?"

She interrupted when Sakura opened her mouth. "Don't answer that. I already have a headache, and it only seems to be aggravated by smartasses." She sighed. "Fine, you can go. Assuming that the Raikage agrees to my terms, of course. We'll have to wait for his response."

She stood, gesticulating towards the door. "Now get out of my office, all of you. And if you happen to see Shizune, tell her that anything and everything even remotely alcoholic within a ten-mile radius needs to be brought here ASAP." She sank back into her chair, muttering, "They don't pay me enough for this gig."

Sasuke looked around the room, at all of the people gathered there on his behalf—Tsunade, who, quite unexpectedly, was hazarding the security of the Village for him. Kakashi, who acted as a silent guardian in the background, assessing and making his support known. Naruto, who spoke out vehemently in his defense, sincerity and strong emotion abundant in every word.

And Sakura, putting her slight, much smaller form in front of him, trying to shield him from the world and all who meant him harm in a rather ironic reversal of roles.

It occurred to him that he should do everything in his power not to lose these people, these people that believed in and cared for him. He was far from sure that he would ever find anyone like them again.

* * *

Hey, all. This chapter is a little later than it should have been, but I hope the content makes up for that. We're finally getting into the plot! Thanks very much for topping two hundred reviews. :D I had the most awful day when I posted the last chapter, and I responded to like. Practically none of them. But thanks again to everyone who took the time to give their thoughts, and even went so far as to pretend to care about my life.

Posted under my profile are a few monster-paragraphs of notes that pertain to this story as a whole; therefore, I thought it better to put them there. Check it out when you get the chance. What I will say now is that I'm trying to create, slowly and as realistically as I can, a Sakura that is tough enough not to take Sasuke's shit but still warm and supportive enough to help him _through _his shit. If that makes any sense at all.

Because I didn't say this last chapter, I will say it twice now: Yay for **precarious mind**! Yay for **precarious mind**!

Unrelated:  
**1)** Just got back from Toronto yesterday. Canadians are very nice people. I was kinda disappointed, though; not once did someone say "blah blah blah, ay?" So nothing was as Canadian as I thought it would be. I don't know. I guess I just kind of expected, like, Mounties to be everywhere, and to see lumberjacks strolling down the street chugging maple syrup. People of Canada, please forgive me my stereotypes. I'd never been out of the continental US before, sad as that is.  
**2)** So I'm taking a virtual Mandarin class, right? And I'll be sitting there on the computer in the Guidance office, making all of these bizarre sounds into the microphone, and everyone will be giving me funny looks, and I'll feel so _awkward_. Also, I'll be doing my work and encounter a problem, right? So I'll page my teacher and be like "I don't get this. It's not working. Help me." ... But then I'll figure it out for myself like, two minutes later, so I'll have to send her another page and be like "Jaykay. I got it. My badddd." If I were her, I'd probably want to virtually bitch-slap me. D:


	6. Chapter 6

**There for You**

Ino was as happy with her life as anyone in her line of work could be.

She was beautiful (yes, she was vain, but was it really so wrong to take pride in her looks?), she got recognition for her work at the Torture & Interrogations Unit, she had parents that loved her, teammates she adored, and a best friend that she would do anything for.

(Of course, her Asuma-sensei was dead, dead and gone, but she put flowers on his grave every week, and Kurenai's child had his eyes and grin, and so it was all right, she thought, it was kind of maybe all right.)

On the topic of Sakura, the green-eyed girl was not as happy with her life, not nearly as content. Ino knew that the other girl, no matter how much she improved, regardless of how many brick walls she could reduce to rubble, and despite all the praise and credit she received, was always craving and striving for more strength and skill and knowledge.

Ino had ambition, it was true; she couldn't have gotten to be a Special Jounin in the area of interrogation and the personal protégé of Morino Ibiki otherwise. Sure, her taijutsu was sub-par and her genjutsu skills were negligent, but she was content with herself as she was.

Sakura, on the other hand, didn't even seem to have a limit to how much stronger she wanted to become. She just wanted to be _better better better_, stronger and faster and smarter.

Ino wanted to tell her that it was _okay_, that she didn't have to live up to (or God forbid surpass) the sky-high standards set by Sasuke and Naruto, that they had far too many unfair advantages—the former with his Uchiha blood and all that it entailed, and the latter with the awesome power of the Kyuubi.

But Sakura disregarded warnings, dismissed caution, and continued to train and study and work. She sought the advice and expertise of many, learning everything she could from anyone willing to teach her. She volunteered for missions, worked herself to the bone at the hospital, even aided the Godaime in special tasks.

That left Ino to only watch and support her and hope that her best friend didn't burn herself out by the time she left her teens.

The two of them were sitting at their favorite café, munching on pastries and sipping outrageously overpriced coffee drinks. The tried to have such a get-together at least once a week, but sometimes Sakura's schedule would be so cramped that they would have to settle for every two weeks. Being the most sought-after medic aside from the Godaime didn't leave her with an abundance of free time.

"So," Ino started, setting down her mug as pale mid-afternoon sunlight seeped through the windowpane behind her, warming her back, "you and Sasuke-kun are going to Kumo, huh?"

Sakura tore off a piece of strudel and dunked it in her coffee. "So it would seem."

The blond tilted her head and asked carefully, "You sure that's the best idea you've ever had?"

The other girl didn't take offense, which surprised her slightly. "Mmm. Maybe not. But I've already decided and made my intentions known. Even if I wanted to, it's too late to back out now. Shishou already got it cleared with the Raikage. I'll be acting as our ambassador, as well as an overseer as to whether the terms are met. And…" she hesitated, chewing meditatively on a fingernail.

"I don't know. I just… it's so strange. Part of me… is so _happy _just to be around Sasuke-kun. Part of me just can't believe that he's back, that he's here, that he's home. But I'm also… sometimes it seems like I'm just waiting, just waiting for him to say or do something to hurt me. Because I… he _always _ends up hurting me. Even when he doesn't try to, and especially when he does. So I always find myself… on guard, with walls up to defend against any pain. I… I don't want to be hurt again. Not by Sasuke-kun. Never again by Sasuke-kun.

"But… I don't _want _to have walls with Sasuke-kun. I want to trust him." The faintest not of a tremor wound through her voice, and she stared resolutely into the depths of her mug. "I… _God_, I want so badly to trust him. So badly. I want everything to go back to the way it was before, and I know that's silly, and I know that's impossible, but I… sometimes I think that maybe… maybe I'm being too hard on him. Because he does seem to be trying to… to be who I need him to be. To be there. But I just…" she trailed off and shook her head helplessly.

Ino, contrary to her character, digested her friend's confession slowly and with great thought. She could tell that Sakura had spoken with total honesty and was touched that her friend had been so open with her. In all seriousness, she wasn't sure what to tell the other girl.

When it came to Sasuke, Ino… well, she found the kid incredibly sexy. (Who _didn't_?) But she wasn't even close to being shallow enough anymore to think that made up for his other, numerous faults. Whatever feelings she'd ever had for him, they were pretty much gone. On the other hand, she knew herself well enough to realize that, if he ever displayed any romantic interest in her, she would be at least a little bit torn. He was _Sasuke-kun_.

But he was Sakura's Sasuke-kun.

"Well, Forehead, I'm not sure what to tell you," she began haltingly. "I… don't think you're wrong to be guarded around him, considering everything he's put you through. But you're right, I think he really is trying." She recalled the bouquet he'd bought from her. "He… he really does care about you, you know. I realize that I don't know him nearly as well as you do, but…

"I don't know. I mean, this is completely your call. I'd say… that you shouldn't trust him yet, not after everything. But… I mean, you're going on this whole big, long mission with him. If he keeps trying, then you should give him a chance, for your sake and his. You guys can't go on like this forever. It just wouldn't be… _right_."

Sakura bit her lip. "Yeah… I get where you're coming from. So I guess we'll see how this Kumo thing goes." She glanced at the clock mounted on the wall above them. "We've still got some time before I have to go back for my shift. Wanna do something else?"

Ino grinned and stood to sling an arm around her friend's shoulders. "Sweetie, we are going shoe-shopping. I have taken it upon myself to make sure that you do not leave the country without at least one new pair of fabulous shoes."

Sakura made a face, but her eyes were lit up with anticipation. "Not everything calls for new shoes, Ino."

The blond shook her head sadly. "You know not the fallacy of your own words."

Sakura raised her eyebrows, impressed. "Wow, fallacy. Way to step outside your vocab. comfort zone. I knew Shikamaru was good for something."

Looking at her best friend, Ino decided that, if Sasuke did indeed hurt her again, even the most magical red eyes in the world wouldn't be able to save him.

~x~

Before Naruto had left for his mission, he'd drawn Sasuke aside.

"_Listen," the blue-eyed boy said, "when you and Sakura-chan are gone, you have to—…" he scrunched up his face. "I mean, I know that Sakura-chan is strong and awesome and kick-ass and everything, but she… she gets carried away, trying to look after everyone else first. And it's just, she's just…" he looked at Sasuke helplessly._

_She was too precious to risk losing._

_Sasuke knew that. He was almost offended that the other boy thought he had to tell him that, that he didn't think he already knew, but when he paid attention to the way Naruto's eyes brightened when Sakura was being discussed, the way his voice warmed when he said her name, even when he was being uncharacteristically serious…_

_He understood that Naruto probably couldn't help but say it, the way Sasuke couldn't stop himself from taking hits meant for their green-eyed girl._

"_Relax, dead-last," Sasuke drawled, trying his best to affect an air of boredom. "I'll take care of her."_

_And he would. No matter what, he would. Whatever Sakura really was to him, she was still one of his most important people, and regardless of whatever shit mission the Raikage made him do, her safety would be his top priority. He had learned from his past mistakes._

_He had learned. _

_Naruto did indeed relax. "Yeah, well. You bastard."_

_They looked at each other for a moment, united in their common cause of worrying about and caring for their pink-haired teammate._

So, with Naruto already gone, Sasuke and Sakura stood at the gate to the Village with Tsunade and Kakashi on the morning of their departure. They'd gotten many hard stares from the villagers that they had passed. The civilians knew that Sasuke's existence was putting their home at risk, and, naturally, they resented him for it. Many still hadn't forgiven him for leaving, and this matter only added to their ire.

Betrayal was a serious issue in the ninja Villages.

Not that Sasuke really gave a damn one way or the other what they thought of him. Sakura, on the other hand, had been aggravated. "Me, Naruto, and Kakashi-sensei are allowed to be mad at you," she'd told him. "No one else."

He'd found that statement childish and self-absorbed, but hadn't thought it wise to say as much. And, at any rate, he knew himself well enough to realize that he wasn't exactly at liberty to accuse anyone—most especially Sakura—of the latter.

Tsunade addressed Sakura, who was adjusting the straps of her pack. "You have the documents to give to the Raikage?"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

"You have the healing balms I prepared as a peace offering?"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

"You're patronizing me, aren't you?"

Sakura grinned. "Only a little, Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes playfully. "I hope you too have to deal with obnoxious brats when you're my age." She looked to Kakashi. "What is the world coming to? In my day, one was supposed to respect one's elders."

The masked man shook his head mournfully, though his single visible eye didn't stray from the pages of his trademark orange book. "It's their whole damn generation," he remarked. "Not a polite one among the lot of them."

A cool breeze stirred Sakura's hair as she knelt to secure bands under her knees. At Sasuke's quizzical glance, she explained, "I've had some trouble with my knees before, when I've had to travel long distances for days. The bands support them. It's no big deal; more precautionary than anything, really."

Sasuke tilted his chin lower to indicate his understanding and stored the information away to the part of his mind that he was saving for all the things he learned about this new Sakura.

Slowly, slowly, he was piecing together the fragments and starting to construct the whole, to develop an understanding of this girl with green eyes whom he didn't know but was really beginning to believe that he wanted to.

"Now," Tsunade said, "you are expected in Kumo in five days. Traveling at top-speed, you could make it in three, but don't feel the need to push yourselves. Arrive on the scheduled day." She frowned. "What am I forgetting?" she asked Kakashi.

"There've been reports of increased activity by rogue ninjas," he filled in readily. "Along the roads and on the outskirts of the towns, preying on weak shinobi and unsuspecting civilians."

"Ah, yes," Tsunade nodded. "They shouldn't be any problem at all for you two, but you should keep an eye out all the same. And, Sakura," she fixed the girl with a level stare, "should you happen across any of their victims—or, rather, just anyone in need… I'm not going to say not to help them, but remember your priorities."

The addressed kunoichi crossed her arms, looking affronted but still a bit sheepish. "I always remember my priorities."

"Right," her mentor responded dryly, a knowing look on her face. "Of course you do."

"I _do_," she insisted stubbornly. "… What? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Because they all, even Sasuke, who was scrambling to re-familiarize himself with her, knew of her compassion and how it drove her to sacrifice herself and often abandon the most pragmatic course of action, all for the sake of people she rarely even knew.

"Jerks," she muttered, the slightest tinge of a blush highlighting the tops of her cheekbones.

"At any rate," Tsunade went on, amused, "be careful. And watch out for any foul play on the Raikage's part. I don't trust his word quite as much as I could."

Sakura nodded. "You want a report every week?"

"That's right." Tsunade patted her protégé on the head, and there was something very maternal in the gesture. Drawing back her hand, she looked at Sasuke as well. "Good luck, both of you."

Sakura poked Kakashi in the bicep. "C'mon, sensei. No warm words of farewell from you? You're hurting Sasuke-kun's feelings." She gesticulated towards the dark-eyed boy's impassive face. "Look at him, he's devastated. About to cry. I don't think he's ever going to get over this."

For a fraction of a moment, Sasuke wanted to cross his eyes at her. Not that he was even able to cross his eyes, but he figured the thought still counted.

"I'm sure he'll manage," Kakashi commented wryly. He spread his arms dramatically wide. "But if it makes you feel better, Sasuke, you can always come and give your old sensei a hug."

Sasuke didn't see why everyone found it necessary to pick on him all the time.

Sakura giggled. "He doesn't know what to do. Your offer just means that much to him."

"As entertaining as this is," Tsunade broke in, "we need to get this show on the road. Off with you."

"All right. Bye, Tsunade-sama. Bye, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura smiled, waving, and there was maybe a hint of… of _something _in her expression, something that Sasuke couldn't identify and wasn't sure he wanted to, but it was gone quick enough, and that made it easier to pretend he'd never noticed it in the first place.

He nodded to the Godaime and his old teacher briefly, and then they took off into the trees. Glancing over at Sakura, who was looking ahead, her eyes bright with vitality, he hoped that he would indeed be able to keep his promise to Naruto.

He couldn't imagine the consequences if he didn't.

* * *

Boring as crap, I know, but I figured I'd post it so that we can get on to more exciting things. This kind of just ties everything together and sets up for plot-ish stuff. Also, Ino's POV is introduced. Honestly? I think she's the most _epic fail _after the time-skip. She prances around wearing slutty clothes and not really doing anything of substance. But I think of all the potential she showed as a child and even pre-timeskip, so I kind of tried to mold the two. Huzzah?

Um, random, but guys? I don't bite, honest. For those of you who message me, you don't have to be all "Neon Genesis-san" or overly... I don't know. It's just, I'm Becca. And I'm just a kid. You know? I like hearing from all of you, but not being treated like I'll self-combust without elaborate praise or respect. Just wanted to get that out there. (Oh, and whoever rec'd this story for that Naruto Polls thing-y? Thanks! :D)

Awesomeness + Mad Skillz = **precarious mind**.

Unrelated:  
**1)** So I have screwed-up knees, right? I'll be in physical therapy, surrounded by all these old people with their old people problems and their old people smell, and I'll just think, _This is not cool. I am not okay with this_. And we were playing kickball in gym class, yeah? Let's just say that I shall now forever be known as "That Weird Kid That Kicked the Ball and Immediately Burst into Tears." One word: _Fail.  
_**2)** My English teacher hates me. Mostly because she'll be talking and I'll sit there making smart-ass comments and twisting her words around for my own amusement - a little more loudly than I should. And so she'll be demonstrating sentence structure and crap and create sentences like "The teacher slapped the obnoxious student across the face" and she'll give me this _You better sleep with your eyes open, pal _Death Glare at which point I will "eep" and hide behind my textbook. So if at one point it appears as if I've disappeared off the face of the earth... well, you guys can maybe figure out what happened to me. Unless, of course, another hater does me in. Which is entirely possible. -looks over shoulder-


	7. Chapter 7

**There for You**

Slowly, and with a calm sort of professional detachment, Sakura reached up and wiped—_smeared_—the splattered blood off her face. Then, using a cloth, she rid her kunai of its gleaming red sheen.

Sasuke tore his eyes away.

They'd had a run-in with the rogue ninjas they'd been warned about. There were many of them, some even possessing a certain degree of skill, and despite his best intentions, Sasuke had had to allow Sakura to largely take care of herself. He hated himself for it because he had lost his edge in Konoha, had grown soft and complacent, and if he hadn't, he wouldn't have had to leave Sakura's life in her own hands—meaning hands less capable than his.

Because even if Sakura _could _look after herself, Sasuke could look after her better.

That was what he told himself, at least, because he'd had a purpose all his life—first to please his father, next to kill his brother, then to destroy Konoha—and he couldn't seem to function without one. So now he obligated himself to protecting Sakura, and while one might think it paled in comparison to the others he'd had, it was something, and it was important to him.

Or perhaps it all burned down to his damnable need to be needed.

At any rate, they had killed roughly half of the rogues before the others had had the good sense to flee. Now, in the aftermath, looking at his teammate, something in him grew cold.

He acknowledged in an offhand, practically indifferent manner that Sakura had grown strong, but he didn't think of her as a fighter. In his mind, she was a healer, and that was the end of it. Watching her wipe another's blood from her face…

It was _wrong_.

Sakura wasn't supposed to be like that. Sakura was supposed to be compassionate and warm, always. Even when angry, as she so often seemed to be around him, she was lit up, and that was _right_, that was the way it was supposed to be, the way _she _was supposed to be, not hardened and impassive.

She shouldn't have to kill people. She shouldn't be _able _to kill people—because if she was, then Sasuke would have to (_did _have to, now) consider that she wasn't as pure and untouched and untainted as he had thought, as he had _wanted _her to be.

Perhaps he and Naruto had been deluding themselves all along, thinking they were protecting her—from battle, from harm, from all the nasty, darker aspects of the world. Because they'd both left her, hadn't they? For different reasons entirely, it was true, but ultimately they had both stepped out of her life and thus stepped _down_ from their mantle as Sakura's protectors.

Had they really thought that she wouldn't have to get her hands dirty, have to get _blood _on them? That she wouldn't have to grow up and become a real shinobi (no emotion no crying), a _tool_ to be put to the use of the highest bidder?

Sasuke was disturbed by this turn of events, this realization that Sakura wasn't as taintless and sheltered as he had hoped she would remain.

But then he noticed that her hands were trembling, that malaise stirred in the depths of her eyes, and he thought…

He thought that it was maybe okay for her to kill, as long as she retained this humanity and conscience, as long as she didn't become a ruthless, cold-blooded killer.

(But then, it was _Sakura_, and there was no way she would ever be like that, anyway. He still knew that much about her, even when so much else had changed.)

"Sasuke-kun…"

At Sakura's shaky voice, he looked up. She was directing her gaze a little to the left of his face, avoiding his eyes. "Ready to move on?"

He grunted a confirmation, and once they were a sufficient distance away, performed a fire jutsu that would dispose of the bodies.

As they continued on their way, a steady drizzle descended upon them. They were both wearing waterproof cloaks, but it was still miserable weather, and they were weary after two days of traveling. Sasuke suspected they would stay at an inn that night instead of camping and being at the mercy of the elements.

Jumping from tree limb to tree limb, a familiar, roiling cloud of darkness probed his conscience, brought to the surface by the bodies and death and fighting. He knew it well, the darkness, the hatred, the bloodlust; when he had turned against Madara, he had managed to bury it somewhere deep inside him, but it had never disappeared.

He could only hope it didn't grow stronger with time.

To combat it, he focused on other things. Glancing to the side, he studied Sakura, whose expression was pensive. For the first time, it struck him that her eyes were truly green—not blue-green, or green-hazel, as most people's were. Just green, and that notion… well, he wasn't sure what it made him feel, but he was confident that it was silly and sentimental, so he disregarded it.

Over the course of their travel, she had kept up better than he'd thought she would. She didn't have his speed or stamina, but not once did she complain about their pace or long hours. Still, he ended up going slower and for shorter amounts of time than he would have had he been by himself. They were in no rush, and he was ever-conscious of pushing her past her limits.

They'd been on the move for a little about an hour when Sasuke sensed something wrong up ahead—nothing exactly terrible or foreboding, but just not right. He didn't mention it right away, and Sakura seemed to notice it too a few minutes later. She met his eyes, and her own were cautious, but curious as well.

He inclined his head to acknowledge that he was aware of it too and that he thought they should continue on and inspect it. She offered him a little half-smile to show acceptance before turning her attention ahead again. Somehow, their unspoken communication pleased him. It meant they were working well as a team, but it also indicated that they were growing closer.

Once they drew nearer, the wrong-feeling increased, and he scanned the area for chakra signatures. Finding none, he was perplexed and wary. He upped his pace slightly to make sure that he was a little ahead of Sakura.

They heard a continuous noise, and as they drew nearer, the increased clarity allowed them to identify it as sobbing—that of a small child, to be specific. Immediately, Sakura sped up and jumped from the trees to the ground, where the cries originated.

Sasuke followed her swiftly, angry and frustrated that she had made herself vulnerable by drawing away from him to an unsecured location.

Beneath the trees they found the mutilated corpses of a man and a woman dressed in civilian attire. It seemed that anything of value had been taken from them, and from a simple, cursory look over their bodies, it was evident to him that they had died slowly.

There it was again, that darkness, that churning, ugly sickness. He fought it down.

The sobbing had come from a young girl, no more than four at most, who had been kneeling by the side of the woman—her mother, Sasuke presumed. When he and Sakura had appeared, she'd cried out and run to cower behind a tree.

Sakura dropped to her knees, completely disregarding the wet, bloodied grass. "Hey, sweetie," she called softly. "It's okay. We won't hurt you. You can come out, it's all right. You're safe now, everything's fine now. Come on out."

After some more coaxing, the girl gradually approached, as Sasuke had expected. Sakura sounded so soothing, so warm and tender; she was exactly what a young, frightened child would be drawn to.

He remembered being a young, frightened child; he remembered wanting exactly the same thing.

The girl's hair, which fell to her shoulders, was so dirtied that its color couldn't be determined, but her eyes were a warm brown, and after a few shaky steps forward, she threw herself into Sakura's open arms and started bawling.

Sakura held her close, arranging her cloak in such a way that it covered the child. "Poor baby," she crooned, "poor baby."

Watching the scene, Sasuke shifted on his feet awkwardly, unsure of what to do. At one point Sakura glanced back at him, and her eyes were so sad that he had to look away.

When a few minutes had passed and still the girl wailed, he approached the bodies and respectfully searched for anything that would indicate their identities and whatever their intended destination had been.

He found some papers in the man's breast pocket and learned, after scanning them, that they were refugees of a tiny, recently-destroyed village in the Land of Lightning. They were seeking shelter in Kumo.

Tucking the papers into his pack, he looked to Sakura. The girl had finally quieted and now rested in Sakura's arms, making the occasional whimper. Sasuke knelt beside his teammate and imparted the information to her quietly, then prompted her with a look.

She bit her lip and began hesitantly, "Hey, sweetie… what's your name?"

The child's face screwed up in misery. "K-K-Kei… -ko…"

Sakura smiled at her gently. "Keiko-chan? That's adorable. Keiko-chan, what happened… to your mom and dad?"

"W-We were w-walking… and th-then… we heard the, the bad people c-coming, and M-Mama…!" She started crying again. Once she was nursed back to coherency, she picked up, "M-Mama made me hide… and so I watched when… when…!"

Again, she dissolved into tears, but Sakura made no effort to hush her, instead only rocking the child. Without looking up, she said quietly, "It must have been those rogues we encountered. Sasuke-kun… do you think you can bury her parents…?"

He nodded and set about the gruesome task, using a few jutsus to speed the process along. Once they were buried where they lied, he found two large stones to use as grave-markers.

When he returned to Sakura's side, the child had been fed and her face cleaned, and she was dozing on the lap of the kunoichi holding her. He found green eyes looking at him intently. "We have to take her with us." Sakura braced, as if expecting opposition from him, but Sasuke only nodded. It wasn't like they could just abandon the kid.

When Sakura rose to her feet, Keiko started. "It's all right," the green-eyed girl soothed. "We're going to take you with us, okay? I'm Sakura, and this is my friend Sasuke. We're going where…" she hesitated, "where you were going."

Keiko nodded miserably and snuggled closer. Alighting to the trees, Sasuke and Sakura promptly set course for the nearest town, which, moving at a speed that wouldn't jar the child in Sakura's arms, would take them roughly three hours to reach.

By the time they were halfway there, Sakura was visibly tiring. She started falling behind, her arms even shaking a bit with the weight of the child.

Uncomfortable but resigned, Sasuke motioned for her to halt. "I'll take the kid," he said gruffly, looking away.

Sakura stiffened. "I can carry her," she insisted defensively.

He searched for a way to not wound her pride. "You carried her halfway there," he pointed out. "I'll carry her the rest of the way."

She looked like she wanted to argue but was too tired even for that. Nodding listlessly, she shifted to hand over the child. Immediately, Keiko started squirming, try to remain in the arms that held her. Sakura exhaled. "I'm just going to let Sasuke-kun carry you for a while, okay, sweetie? It's all right, he won't hurt you."

Keiko eyed Sasuke mistrustfully, but allowed herself to be passed over. He gripped her awkwardly, unaccustomed to holding a child. At the sight, Sakura cracked a weary smile and demonstrated. He imitated her and soon they were on their way again.

Having the girl in his arms felt very strange and foreign to him. He didn't appreciate the encroachment on his personal space, and he had never been comfortable being in physical contact with another person, but it was necessary so that Sakura wouldn't drive herself into the ground with exhaustion.

"S-Sasuke-nii…?"

He was caught off-guard by the honorific. It was perfectly normal for a child to address someone his age as such, but it made him think helplessly of his own elder brother. "Yeah," he grunted.

"You and Onee-chan… are you ninjas? You…" Keiko frowned, the baby fat of her face crinkling. "You _move _like ninjas." She gesticulated with her tinytiny hands, trying to illustrate what she was saying.

He understood. Shinobi, even when walking, were much stealthier and fluid in their movements than civilians. Still, he was surprised that someone so young was perceptive enough to notice. "We are."

"Oh…" Keiko looked apprehensive. "Ninjas… are scary. They do bad things." She shrank in on herself, as if expecting him to strike her. "But Onee-chan isn't scary. And you're…" she looked up at him nervously. "You're not _that _scary."

Sakura was listening and seemed to be stifling laughter at his expense. He glared at her, then pointedly avoided looking at the both of them. "Hn."

Sasuke decided that he didn't like kids.

~x~

They got a lot of strange looks when they arrived at the town; two Konoha-nin with very different reputations and a child between them was  
sure to start talk.

They acquired a room with two beds at the small local inn. Keiko would stay with Sakura. Their meal consisted of items purchased from a nearby convenience store, and after they'd eaten Sakura helped Keiko with her bath, which revealed her hair to be a honey blond.

Wearing a shirt of Sakura's as a nightgown, the child curled up against the medic and fell asleep immediately, the older girl drifting off not long after. However, insomnia visited Sasuke like an old friend, and he found himself standing on the room's tiny balcony at one in the morning.

At Sakura's quiet, approaching footfalls, he grimaced. He hadn't wanted to disturb her sleep.

"Hey…" She came to stand beside him, hair mussed, eyes glazed and unfocused from slumber.

He exhaled. "Go back to bed. You need rest."

She didn't answer, and she didn't leave. She kept him company for a while, and he couldn't find it in him to push the matter. If she wanted to sacrifice her sleep, it was her own business. And… her presence calmed him, in a way. He'd been going over the day's events with anxiety over the darkness and grim anticipation for what awaited him in Kumo.

Staring out into the night, his eyesight blurred, as it did from time to time. His eyesight had seemed to improve after he stopped using the Mangekyo so often, but these bouts of bad vision still occurred, and they were painful.

Hissing quietly, he covered his eyes with his hands.

Immediately, Sakura was awake. "Sasuke-kun! Are you okay?" She reached out as if to touch his shoulder.

He jerked away from her. "I'm fine!" he snapped. The spells made him edgy and bad-tempered.

Her hand hanging awkwardly in the air, her expression went through a rapid slideshow of surprise then hurt then anger, where it halted and remained, as if captured in a photograph. She dropped her hand to her side stiffly.

_Damn it. _"I'm fine," he said again, more gently, in lieu of apology.

After a moment she relaxed, hearing the undertones of compunction in his voice.

The bout passed, though he was noticing that, slowly but surely, his vision was becoming less and less sharp. Tension and disconcertion coiled in his chest. Sakura was regarding him quietly and with mild distress, which made the corners of his mouth tighten. He _hated _it when people—especially she—worried about him.

Once more, he reiterated firmly, "I'm fine."

Dubiety evident in her tone and particularly in her eyes, she murmured, "If you say so…"

He expected her to pursue the subject, to nag him to reveal the reasons behind his strange behavior, but instead leaned her elbows on the railing and kept quiet. Grateful, Sasuke remained with her in such a manner for some time after.

Perhaps he didn't resent Sakura's changes so much after all.

* * *

Okay. Guys. I am ashamed to ask this, but does anyone have any ideas for what mission the Raikage will assign to Sasuke? I have ideas, but they all kind of suck. And I warn of original characters up ahead; I'll try to keep them as realistic as possible, but shout at me if I start getting self-indulgent. Keiko will be major-ish for a while; my plot is _still _regrettably inchoate. (And I only realized after I wrote it that I made her physical appearance like, _exactly _that of Kisa from _Fruits Basket_, haha.) And I know this chapter is later than usual, but I won't apologize because, contrary to popular belief, I _do _kind of have a life.

Huzzah for **precarious mind**!

Unrelated:  
1) I was at the National Book Festival in D.C. yesterday, where _Daniel Silva signed my book_! I realize that many of you probably don't know who he is, but still. _Oh. Em. Jesus. _Also while there, I got rained on, ran into five people, spilled soda on my favorite white jacket, made a kid cry, and knocked over a table with like, twenty-gagillion fliers on it, which I then had to pick up. (It's all a long story.) But I also got a free poster, so it like, balanced out?  
2) I'm hungry.


End file.
